I’ve had this idea in the back of my head for a few days and I wanted to act on it. For some reason, Ive had this urge to take out my macro lens and shoot some macro shots. So today I grabbed my camera and the afore mentioned lens and headed out to a local park to see what I could see.

Autumn is by far my favourite time of year for taking photos, but sometimes I feel like I’ve done it all before. I’m always trying to do something different, to shake things up a bit, and so recently I had an idea. Instead of doing the usual and focus on the autumn colours, I would instead see if I could make some interesting images of autumn textures.

The last time I went to Glendalough to shoot has ended up being the gift that keeps on giving. Every now and then I go back to my collection of images from the day and discover something else, or rediscover a shot that I’d dismissed. In this case, I discovered a series of shots of the tree line that I had previously glossed over.

Last Saturday we decided to go for an impromptu drive into the countryside around Dublin and north County Wicklow. We headed for the picturesque area of Blessington, and the famous lakes, which are nestled in the Wicklow mountains. The lakes are actually artificial and were formed 50 years ago by the creation of a dam which flooded the valley. They now provide hydroelectric power and drinking water to parts of county Dublin.

Apparently, we’re in for some interesting weather over the next few days. We’re currently experiencing some unusually cold weather for this time of the year, and for the past week, the government agencies here in Ireland have been warning us of an impending serious weather event.

Last year I got up early with the aim of capturing the sunrise for the first day of the year. I took some nice shots of the light before dawn but it clouded over too much before the actual sun rose. Still, I wanted to make it a tradition, and so, once again, I headed to the same spot in order to catch the first rays of the sun for 2018.

Last weekend I went to one of my favourite spots in Ireland, the Glendalough National Park, which is home to some spectacular scenery, and is a glacial valley in the wicklow mountains. Along with the spectacular scenery, there was some spectacular light too. The weather was changeable to say the least, and a continuous series of clouds and showers danced across the scenery.

I happened to be in the right place at the right time the other day to capture an amazing sunset. While travelling back on the ferry from Holyhead to Dublin, the sea was calm and the sky was beautiful, and as we reached the middle of the journey the sun set on the horizon, in a beautiful display of reds and golds.

I was in Galway yesterday, which was the longest day of the year, and I wanted to capture the sunset over Galway bay looking out to the Atlantic. As it was the longest day, it was kind of a special sunset, marking the end of the lengthening evenings and the start of the long march back to winter. Unfortunately it was cloudy, but there was still some nice light, and the beach at Salthill in Galway is dramatic in and of itself.

In the previous issue of my travel diary, I talked about visiting the German city of Darmstadt on a dull day. I had deliberately gone for an industrial and rigid look to the photos for that piece, to enhance the mood of the dull weather. While this certainly suited the atmosphere, it does perhaps misrepresent the town of Darmstadt. During on the rest of my time there, the sun was out and the feeling couldn’t be more different. It’s actually a lovely city, and a very green one.

During my recent stay in the German city of Darmstadt, I was scanning google maps one evening looking for places to go, when I noticed that down the road from where I was staying, there seemed to be a rather large area of forest. This was strange in and of itself, because where we were staying was in an industrial estate, with big modern buildings, but just down the road was a huge forest.

As someone who worked as a designer for many years, combinations of colours have always fascinated me. I like how you can heave meaning and impart feelings, just by using certain colour combinations. When spring comes around, I love the combination of green and yellow, and nothing symbolises that more than the humble daffodil.

The other day, the temperature dropped down below zero for the first time this year. The air was cold and fresh, and you could feel the icy hands of winter on your skin. The winter sky is clear and blue, and the low sun gives the illusion of warmth, but you can almost see the invisible iciness in the air.

I was walking through a nearby forested park the other day, and I caught an interesting sequence of images. There is a large lake in the middle of the park and there’s always lots of ducks and seagulls there. At this time of the year it’s especially beautiful, as the autumn colours on the leaves give the waters of the lake a patchwork of green and gold.

It’s been a weird few weeks. I’ve been dealing with some health issues since June, and it’s been taking its toll on me, both from a photographic point of view as well as a physical and emotional one...The upshot of this is that I haven’t been able to get out as much as I would like to because of a lack of energy and generally feeling rotten. But the outside has been calling me, as has my camera....Over the weekend my wife and I took a walk through a nearby park. This is a huge park with forested areas and lovely open spaces. There’s even a wild meadow like field in the middle of it.